External Email Tag in Some Outlook Applications

Effective Date

The following email security feature will take effect after March 17, 2021.

Purpose

Most email scams begin with messages from an external email system.  To see a list of known phishing emails reported on campus, please see the CSULB Phish Bowl. As part of the University's effort to reduce phishing threats and other email scams, external email messages will now receive an "External" tag in the message.  

Many safe and legitimate email messages come from external email systems. The "External" tag does not mean the message is a scam, but it does provide additional information about the message source, which is there to help you determine it's legitimacy.

In Which Email Applications Will I See This?

Outlook will display a new "External" tag on emails in some Outlook applications, which only include:

  • Outlook on the web (this is your CSULB email account accessed via SSO)
  • the new Outlook for Mac
  • Outlook for iOS
  • Outlook for Android

As shown in the following sample screen shots, the sender's email address can be viewed at the top and will be included at the top of the reading pane or by clicking the External tag.

Outlook on the web view of External tags

Outlook on the web view of external tags

Outlook for iOS views of External tags

External tag in the message list view:

Outlook for iOS view of External tag in the message list

External tag when reading chosen email:

Outlook for iOS view of External tag in an opened message

View of sender's email address after tapping External tag for more information, which displays a message indicating the email address is outside the organization:

Outlook for iOS view of External tag that is clicked indicate sender is outside your organization